One does what one must to cope with disappointment and loss. Some of those are good ideas, others less so, but cleaning up our deck is one I picked. I don’t know if it helped much, but at least the deck is cleaner and I got some exercise.
The photo above is of a pile of leaves and such that I swept up on our deck. As my Instagram comment says, it was the first time since last winter that I’d have both the time and good enough weather to do this. Even so, the pile is actually about half the size of the one I made when cleaning up after autumn.
This was also the first time I’ve attempted anything that physical and intense since my healthcare adventure nearly three months ago (not counting washing the dogs, which is also physically tiring, but different). I came through with flying colours, and not all of them were leaves picked up in the wind.
Last night, when I was planning on ways to deal with the disappointment and mourning caused by the election, I thought some physical activity would be a good idea, and sweeping the deck was the first thing I thought of. May as well be a long-delayed and necessary bit of work, I thought.
Before I started, I noticed some more fireworks debris, and I posted a photo to Instagram showing of all that I found (the photo is below). The caption I gave it read, “This morning, after a couple windy days, I found more Guy Fawkes fireworks debris, all blowed up. I looks a bit like how I feel, tbh.” It was meant as a bit of somewhat-sarcastic-but-truthful humour, while the one for the photo above was a bit more straightforward.
All of this stuff today really amounted my coping skills in action: Being busy, doing something physical, taking some photos, sharing them for others (without necessarily having to, you know, actually interact with anyone…), all of that meant I was doing things that I enjoy (including sweeping the deck!), and physical activity is supposed to be one of the best things someone can do when feeling down.
Still, it’s not ALL soft-focus wonderfulness: The midday news had the election as the lead story, of course, and when they showed a bit of Donnie making his speech last night, I’m sure I must have made a disgusted face, because the level of disgust and revulsion I was feeling was full to overflowing. A little while later they broadcast a segment profiling the new “First Family” and I quite literally felt nauseous at the sight of them. Clearly I need coping skills to deal with the illness I feel at the very sight of that Oompa Loompa becoming president. It’s a work in progress, I suppose, and I’ve four long, dark years to perfect a strategy (so far, just not watching him/them on TV is a good option).
So, today was a productive day. It may even have been a reasonably okay day, in the sense that my chosen activities seemed to help me feel, well, not better, but less bad. Today, those coping skills were good enough.
I still have another area outside the house to give a Spring tidying…
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